Pre-Game Talk: ECQF Game 4 | NY Islanders vs. Pittsburgh Penguins | May 7 | 7 PM

[YearlyLottery]

I think tomorrow we see a win as well. I'd be surprised if the team didn't learn a lesson from yesterdays game... take a lead, protect it at all costs and keep stacking it higher like the pens did to us the first game.

My concerns with the rest of the series, aside from Nabokov that everyone knows well, is Tavares.

The team as a whole has taken a nice step forward in their play. Some like Okposo have elevated their game alot, and most like for example Boyes (weird to written his name) have brought their game up a little. But Tavares, aside from his goal yesterday, has been solid (and still better then the rest) but hasn't elevated his game. He hasn't gone beast mode for any sustained length these last few games.

If we are going to win the next game, and hopefully a few more to win this series, Nabokov and Tavares need to both elevate their games.

I think it was only a matter of time before his line mates brought him down. He has 2 points in 2 games with one new linemate. Boyes hasn't been terrible either. He scored a clutch goal for us yesterday, but the Pens are all over him. They knew they had to stop JT coming into the series and he's still putting up points against the best team in the Eastern Conference.

 

[Uncle Lou]

Am I the only one that thinks we come out big and win by 2-3 goals tomorrow?

 

[Hipietro]

Funny thing I observed yesterday.

Walking in I never saw so many old and different incarnations of the jersey (many I had long forgotten about) No doubt many fans were reaching deep into the closet to grab these things out.

Walking out I saw many angry yelling fans, one guy walking around in a fish sticks jersey screaming "Whats the matter with you people? Aren't you all pissed"

I turned to my wife and asked "I wonder when the last time that guy was here? Think he has been to many Tuesday night games in February these last five years?"

It was good to see the old barn rock once again. Looking forward to Tuesday.

This has been a great year there is a core and an identity (how the team plays the game) and I really like this identity. Really reminds me of the team just before the cup run, take no crap and play your hearts out.

I realized the same thing with the jerseys. Its funny looking at most other fan bases wearing the same color to games. (red in Washington, orange in Philly, etc.)

Islanders games are always a big mishmash of jerseys from different eras, noticed it yesterday especially.

I'm surprised we don't see too many old Capitals jerseys in Washington, considering they changed their logos/colors not too long ago.

 

[Twine Seeking Missle]

Am I the only one that thinks we come out big and win by 2-3 goals tomorrow?

Probably.

This team does nothing easy so even if we do pull out a win, expect another one goal heart stopper.

 

[The Lighthouse]

I realized the same thing with the jerseys. Its funny looking at most other fan bases wearing the same color to games. (red in Washington, orange in Philly, etc.)

Islanders games are always a big mishmash of jerseys from different eras, noticed it yesterday especially.

I'm surprised we don't see too many old Capitals jerseys in Washington, considering they changed their logos/colors not too long ago.

Our "jersey disunity" got off to a big start in the 90's with the fisherman, then continued with the "fisherman scheme with our old logo" jersey, and through the "we're going orange" years into "we've got piping on the top of our jerseys!" years. I noticed one or two of the early 90's Starter half-home, half-away jerseys yesterday, too.

 

[bigd]

A couple of things:

A) dont you worry, i plan on starting the fleury chants early and often tomorrow. You can tell hes the type that really gets bothered by it like brodeur

B) somethings up with the reffing. I think we got some bad calls in our favor game 2 and the pens got some calls in their favor game 3. Its obvious the nhl is trying to keep these games close to keep interest and excitement levels high.

C) leave all lineups the same for game 4 but switch Hickey for Strait. He's becoming a liability

Everyone is coming down on Strait for getting 2 penalties but the one that changed the tempo of that game was the Harmonic tripping call on Ingila to give the Pens a 5 on 3 for minute and a half. That was the game changer right there. That's an automatic goal with those 5 players out there 5 on 3 and your best PKer in the box. Without that penalty we probably never get to OT.

 

[Islander Prophet]

Am I the only one that thinks we come out big and win by 2-3 goals tomorrow?

no I predicted earlier that the Isles would win by at least 2 goals and we would give up no more than 2 goals

 

[Islander Prophet]

Everyone is coming down on Strait for getting 2 penalties but the one that changed the tempo of that game was the Harmonic tripping call on Ingila to give the Pens a 5 on 3 for minute and a half. That was the game changer right there. That's an automatic goal with those 5 players out there 5 on 3 and your best PKer in the box. Without that penalty we probably never get to OT.

True, but the fact is we can only tell which penalties cost us after the game is over. The simple truth that Strait took 2 penalties means more than a single one. It's like in baseball you don't get a hit if you only get on base because of a defensive error, since what you did wasn't good and you only got there because of something else out of your control

 

[bigd]

True, but the fact is we can only tell which penalties cost us after the game is over. The simple truth that Strait took 2 penalties means more than a single one. It's like in baseball you don't get a hit if you only get on base because of a defensive error, since what you did wasn't good and you only got there because of something else out of your control

Not exactly because Hamonics 1 penalty definetly cost us one goal and possibly 2. Strait had 2 penalties but they only scored on one which was the game ending goal. Hamonics penalty was a game changer at that moment and obviously Straits was too. But without Hamonics penalty we may not even get to OT. But I see your point, it's all water under the bridge. I'm just pointing out how bad Hamonics penalty was at that time to the outcome of the game.

 

[islesfan186]

I wish I had your confidence. Here is what scares me:

We have now lost our last 7 home playoff games. For neverLOSE has turned into fort neverWIN.

Second, we played our best game yesterday... and it STILL wasn't enough. I don't see how we can play any better to be honest. The only thing that can improve is the goaltending and Nabby has not shown us anything to suggest that will happen.

Yeah maybe, but one of the members of the team did not have his best game, and that was the guy between the pipes. Mediocre at best this series

 

[MDIsles]

Pens fan make me chuckle. I know four of them from the Pittsburgh greater Metro Area. Only 1 of them is a rational fan.

I get these:

-The game shouldn't have gone to OT, so don't complain about the penalty. We are superior than you by far

-We should be up 3-0 but we've had bad bounces.


These are why the Pittsburgh fan is freaking annoying. In section 309 I saw a Pens fan with a Yankee hat. I guess he loves the Heat and Cowboys too...

#BeLIeve

 

[MDIsles]

Am I the only one that thinks we come out big and win by 2-3 goals tomorrow?

I would just take a win... But yes, my heart would love a 3 goal win. Can't take too many of these heart attack games. I try not to drink on weeknights because of work.

 

[Barz1]

Am I the only one that thinks we come out big and win by 2-3 goals tomorrow?

I agree----- I think we take an early lead, and we stay out of the box this time---

Btw, the Vegas Over/Under for Crosby dives currently at 3-

 

[crashthenet]

Funny thing I observed yesterday.

Walking in I never saw so many old and different incarnations of the jersey (many I had long forgotten about) No doubt many fans were reaching deep into the closet to grab these things out.

Walking out I saw many angry yelling fans, one guy walking around in a fish sticks jersey screaming "Whats the matter with you people? Aren't you all pissed"

I turned to my wife and asked "I wonder when the last time that guy was here? Think he has been to many Tuesday night games in February these last five years?"

It was good to see the old barn rock once again. Looking forward to Tuesday.

This has been a great year there is a core and an identity (how the team plays the game) and I really like this identity. Really reminds me of the team just before the cup run, take no crap and play your hearts out.

I was thinking the same thing.

 

[wingnutks]

Funny thing I observed yesterday.

Walking in I never saw so many old and different incarnations of the jersey (many I had long forgotten about) No doubt many fans were reaching deep into the closet to grab these things out.

Walking out I saw many angry yelling fans, one guy walking around in a fish sticks jersey screaming "Whats the matter with you people? Aren't you all pissed"

I turned to my wife and asked "I wonder when the last time that guy was here? Think he has been to many Tuesday night games in February these last five years?"

It was good to see the old barn rock once again. Looking forward to Tuesday.

This has been a great year there is a core and an identity (how the team plays the game) and I really like this identity. Really reminds me of the team just before the cup run, take no crap and play your hearts out.

My wife was wearing my 19 year old Ferraro away jersey (blue).

I actually told my brother, its either going to be another very close game with Pitt probably winning, or we win 5-2.

 

[doublechili]

I've been wondering whether this would be worth trying:

Go back to the Streit/Frans 1st PP unit pointmen setup, and re-unite the old 1st PP unit that was killer in the beginning of the season (including against the Pens in the 4-1 game):

Moulson-JT-Boyes
Frans - Streit

The 2nd unit could be:

Bailey-Okposo and ??
Vis - MacDonald/Hamonic

I think it's worth trying just to see if that 1st unit can catch fire like they did early in the year. Also, with Vis on the 2d unit you might not see the dropoff you see otherwise (where it seems like we basically have a 1 minute PP b/c the 2nd unit does zip).

Just tinkering.

 

[Uncle Lou]

I agree----- I think we take an early lead, and we stay out of the box this time---

Btw, the Vegas Over/Under for Crosby dives currently at 3-

Well played sir.

 

[2ndGenIslander]

Pens fan make me chuckle. I know four of them from the Pittsburgh greater Metro Area. Only 1 of them is a rational fan.

I get these:

-The game shouldn't have gone to OT, so don't complain about the penalty. We are superior than you by far

-We should be up 3-0 but we've had bad bounces.


These are why the Pittsburgh fan is freaking annoying. In section 309 I saw a Pens fan with a Yankee hat. I guess he loves the Heat and Cowboys too...

#BeLIeve

Since when are the cowboyz associated with winning

 

[Islander Prophet]

Since when are the cowboyz associated with winning

ya lol you should have said Patriots or something

 

[PK Cronin]

Yeah maybe, but one of the members of the team did not have his best game, and that was the guy between the pipes. Mediocre at best this series

He's mediocre at best almost always, I don't know why anyone thinks otherwise.

It's no coincidence that he's 'amazing' when the team is playing well in front of him. It's also no coincidence that he is 'mediocre' when the team is mediocre in front of him (on the PK).

He makes most of the saves he should make, but not enough of the saves that we'd need him to make to steal a game for us. He can't be letting in goals on every PP or breakaway. The team is to blame for those as well, but if he's truly great or really good, he'd make those stops when we need them.

 

[RWWallpaper]

 

[enigmatic]

which is the complete opposite of what this team's been like the last few seasons, and even early this year, when they were bottom three in 5on5 play.

Since mid March, this team has been drastically different and they can play with anyone. Considering JT has been just "above average" and the PP has sucked, the success the team's having is a function of depth and desire.

If the PP gets going (which it most certainly will) and Nabby gets hot, this team could make some serious noise.

im not doubting it can, but it damn better soon if you were referring to making noise this year

 

[InformTheMasses]

He's mediocre at best almost always, I don't know why anyone thinks otherwise.

It's no coincidence that he's 'amazing' when the team is playing well in front of him. It's also no coincidence that he is 'mediocre' when the team is mediocre in front of him (on the PK).

He makes most of the saves he should make, but not enough of the saves that we'd need him to make to steal a game for us. He can't be letting in goals on every PP or breakaway. The team is to blame for those as well, but if he's truly great or really good, he'd make those stops when we need them.

RE: Statement in bold. The team played pretty well in front of him yesterday and he was far from 'AMAZING'.

Nabby gets hot, and he gets cold, like most other goalies. He is just coming off of an extended hot streak. He also is in his late thirties and has played a ridiculous amount of games in a truncated season with less time to rest.

Nabby isn't an amazing goaltender anymore but he is a good one. He has holes and weakness' and tendencies like anyone else. But when he is rested and focused he is sound positional and still has quick reflexes and excellent movement.

When he is tired, he goes down early, stays down (cheats) and makes mental errors with the puck or in pursuit of it. Gets out of sync positionaly.

Right now Nabby doesn't look very rested, looks a bit tired, and I don't see much rest coming until they drop 4 games in a series.

 

[enigmatic]

just win tomorrow.....it will give us a chance to win at home to send this to a game 7......that is all i could have hoped for at the beginning of the series

 

[Quicklime]

....epic.